Sunday, June 17, 2012

Why would I ever do this again?

I read an article not to long back about how pregnancy affects a woman's brain function, and I can tell you, it most definitely does!  For one thing, I seem to get songs stuck in my head and can't get them out for DAYS at a time (as opposed to the normal few hours).  But that wasn't the point of the article.  It was talking about memory.  Apparently pregnant women start losing their memories from the earliest days of pregnancy, and this memory lasts as long as a year past giving birth!  Well, I can attest to the first part of this.  For months I've been forgetting things, like words I want to use in conversation, with much more than normal frequency.  The last couple months, however, I've begun to understand that there's a reason WHY we have this forgetfulness.

BECAUSE IF WE REMEMBERED ALL THIS LATER WE'D NEVER DO IT AGAIN!

I'm not just talking about forgetting labor and delivery, though somehow I think I'll appreciate forgetting that. I'm talking about ALL the things in pregnancy that make us miserable.  From the very first symptom (unexplained heartburn for me) to the lower back pain, swelling hands and feet, and just generally miserable uncomfortableness of the third trimester.  I'm ready, OH SO READY to not be pregnant anymore.  Not ready to be a parent of course, I don't think there's any way to ever be really ready for that, but I'd like to be able to bend over and pick stuff up off the floor, to do yard work again, to be able to walk up the driveway! I'm ready to have this done and over with and be headed toward recovery.

Steve and I had childbirth class yesterday.  There was a slide shown that had symptoms that indicate labor is coming within two weeks.  I realized I'd had all the symptoms on the page, except one (rupture of membranes).  Something tells me I'm not going to make it the three weeks to my due date, and that's ok.  I'm ready.

I've started to write a post about late pregnancy several times lately, but with my memory going I don't remember what-all I was planning to write about, so I'll leave you with a little food for thought.

A few years back the small company that my husband and I worked for was evaluating health insurance plans.  We had a meeting with an insurance representative to discuss options and benefits for various health conditions we expected to treat.  Most questions were about minor surgeries, mental health benefits, and prescription plans, but I asked about how pregnancy was treated, and I'll never forget his response.

"Pregnancy is treated just like any other illness."

Pregnancy?  an illness?  Sure it's uncomfortable and there are health risks, but in what world to people consciously go out and spend thousands of dollars on infertility treatments attempting to catch an illness?  I know women who are DESPERATELY trying to get "sick," and devastated each month when they find out that once again they've failed to contract this disease.  I was one of them eight and a half months ago.  It makes me question the sanity of our entire healthcare system to know that the continuation of the human race is considered a malady.  Though sometimes I look at the state of the world and that makes perfect sense after all.